


Hey Doll...

by poisonous_panda



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Galdin Quay, Hammerhead - Freeform, Hurt, Insomnia, Lestallum, Loss, Love, Reunion, Ten Years of Darkness, World of Ruin, mother of pearl, wor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 05:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11891460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonous_panda/pseuds/poisonous_panda
Summary: A lovely Dino x Reader story for one of my Tumblr friends set in the World of Ruin, inspired by a prompt on the dino-ghiranze-rp Tumblr blog about Dino turning up at his Beloved's house eight years after the Scourge took over Eos, and she had spent the entire time believing he was dead from the moment they were separated at Galdin :)





	Hey Doll...

It had been a day like any other. Granted, the days were getting shorter, but Galdin Quay was still full of tourists, Coctura was still behind her grill, and Dino was still on his favourite bench awaiting calls for whatever scoop would present itself for the Galdin Beacon - the newspaper he worked for.

You’d sit beside him on your days off from work because he couldn’t go far in case he needed to be somewhere for a story, and at the ferry dock was the best place because he was in Lucis but also close to transport to Altissia if he needed to travel. He was always tinkering with some ore and metal nowadays too, his dream of becoming a jeweller that much closer since he claimed four nice young men had helped him out. You knew Dino better than that, he probably sweet-talked them with that silver tongue of his.

So when the Darkness first fell, there was only mild surprise in the resort. Seeing as the days were getting shorter, people just assumed it was time to get inside.

“Tch, how am I supposed ta get any work done huh?” Dino mumbles moodily to himself, packing the emerald ore and silver metal pieces into a small drawstring bag he then stood up to slide in his pocket.

“Oh cheer up Mr. Grumpy!” you laugh at him. It may be dark, but that didn’t mean your mood had to be. You grab his tie and lead him almost like a pup on a leash to the stairs leading up to the Mother of Pearl restaurant.

“Alright alright dollface, watch the threads!” he jokes, earning an eye roll from you.

Releasing his tie, you hold hands on the way up the stairs.

But Dino never made it to the top. 

There were some inhuman shrieks coming from the pier, and when you looked over, an ARMY of goblins were climbing out of the sea. You go to run the last few steps up but a giant purple monstrosity towers over you and lifts its huge arms above its head. Dino realizes it’s intentions before you do, and he pushes past you in an attempt to tackle the Hobgoblin. But the muscley daemon was much stronger. It pushes into Dino with its full body weight, pushing them both down the stairs while you cling helplessly to the railing and scream Dino’s name. 

You can’t hear his voice, so you don’t know if he screamed in those final moments before he disappeared from view under the Hobgoblin’s pounding fists and the smaller goblins jumping all over the pair of them.

Your vision goes blurry from all the tears as a Mother of Pearl security guard takes your arm firmly and guides you to an evacuation vehicle. The Hunters had been prepared for this sort of large scale evac ever since the daylight hours started disappearing. The nationwide plan was to get all survivors to Lestallum so the Exineris power plant could provide artificial light and keep the daemons at bay. There was also talk of a vaccine in the works because the daemons were actually infected people. But apparently it was such a stubborn parasite that it seemed a fruitless venture.

Anyway.... that incident had been eight years ago.

Eight years of total Darkness, confined to the over-populated Lestallum. At first everybody thought it was only Lucis that was having trouble, but the Altissian Secretary of State had declared a national state of emergency in Accordo as her people were either killed or transformed by this strange illness. And Gralea... Well Gralea was rumoured to be the source of the entire problem. But it’s not like anyone could travel there to find out. Sure the Hunters could hold their own when they went out on search-and-rescue missions, but travelling by sea or air was out of the question - too many risks. So for all the populace knew, Lestallum was the last pocket of human inhabitation.

The desperation and eternal Darkness had got to some people. Families tore themselves apart, people took their own lives.... but eventually everything settled. There was no economy anymore, people did what was needed - food was prepared by volunteers in the city, voluntary theatre groups put on plays for entertainment... it was heartwarming to see such a tight-knit community form amongst all this tragedy.

You never gave up hope that the Hunters would find Dino. They were out every day scouring every corner of Lucis for survivors, no matter how many years went by. The only inaccessible place was Insomnia due to the unnaturally strong daemons that prowled the streets; the consensus was that if any humans had been in Insomnia when the Darkness fell, then they never stood a chance from the start. Every day you wore the Altissian pearl bracelet Dino had made you while you were still courting each other; it became your good luck charm and you would absent-mindedly run your fingers over the smooth pearls because the sensation always gave you a sense of calm.

But one day, that hope was shattered.

Dave the Head Hunter knocked on your door, and the grim facial expression he wore when you opened the door to him made your heart drop to your stomach. He didn’t say a word, and you were about to open your mouth to ask if he had found any clues as to Dino’s whereabouts but then you caught sight of what he was carrying.

A charcoal grey jacket. Ripped and splattered with blood and... some black substance. With the sleeves still crumpled up from where Dino would always roll them up to his elbows.

“I’m sorry ma’am...” Dave says slowly, his eyes growing soft as he notices your own are filling with tears, “It’s the most we’ve found of him... So now we’re gonna call off the search. I’m sorry, it’s the best we can do.”

You gingerly take the ruined jacket from him and try to thank him, but all that comes out is a choked sob. Dave understands, places a warm heavy hand on your shoulder then nods solemnly at you before leaving.

Leaving you in your doorway to pick up your shattered heart.

It had been hard. And for a long time you couldn’t bring yourself to throw that destroyed jacket away. Now that Dave had trashed any hope you had of seeing Dino again, you had nightmares almost every night of the final moments you’d shared with him. Of his attempt to protect you from the Hobgoblin’s blow before he got tossed down those stairs like a ragdoll. Although you hadn’t heard anything above the goblin’s giggling and shrieking, in your dreams you could hear Dino’s final bloodcurdling scream as clear as day.

After yet another boring day of constant Darkness, another day of tears and hopelessness just like the rest of Lestallum, there was a faint knock at your front door.

You ignored it.

Probably beggers again. Everyone wanted help, but it seemed as the years went on there were less and less volunteers to keep the community you had all forged together. Everybody wanted something for nothing it seems.

There is was again.

Very faint, almost like you had imagined it.

Curiousity got the better of you. Putting the book down you had been half-heartedly reading in the soft glow of your lamp, you got off the bed and tentatively walked to the front door.

There’s that tapping again.

“He.... hello?” you call softly. And the reply that came from the other side had you scrabbling to undo the chain and latch bolting the door closed.

“Hey doll.... this smarts a bit.... wanna let me in?”

You’d know that accent anywhere.

Flinging the door open, you’re greeted with a sight you never thought you’d see again. Dino, hunched over holding his stomach, bleeding from a bunch of cuts over his body, clothing torn and ripped in random places like claws had snatched at him. But most of the blood was dry, and the bruises were yellowing in colour as they healed. Even his black eye didn’t seem that swollen. He had the normal Hunter garb on rather than his usual smart-casual suit the day you had been seperated.

Questions could wait though. You throw your arms around him and squeeze him so tightly he has to push you away, a small “ow!” escaping his lips along with some strained laughter.

“Dino I never thought I’d see you again where have you been? What happened and how did you survive and what the hell are you wear-” the words just tumble out.

“Can I come in first sugar?” he tries to wink at you, but it looks more pathetic rather than charming due to his black eye.

So you lead him in, and he collapses on the sofa. You fix him some hot chocolate with extra sugar just like he likes it, then seat yourself at the end of the sofa so Dino could rest his legs across your lap. After he takes a few slips and relaxes, you badger him to tell you his story otherwise you’ll crush him in a cuddle again.

It turns out he had managed to wriggle free of the Hobgoblin but was devastated when everyone had left without him. He spent the next few hours following the road up to Hammerhead because he knew the Hunters had made a base there due to the nationwide emergency plan. He had only made it to Longwythe when he was ambushed by Bombs. He was in no condition to fight and had all but accepted this was how he’d die.

“Bada-bing, bada-BOOM!” he’d tried to joke to you, widening his eyes and splaying his fingers out, mimicking a Bomb explosion.

But a young blonde Hunter had found him. Prompto his name was. You had never heard of him but apparently he and his friends were the ones who retrieved the ore for Dino when he was first starting out on his jeweller dream. So this Prompto escorted Dino to the medical bay in the Hunter’s base. He’d suffered two broken ribs, a fractured knee and several dislocated fingers when he was at the mercy of the Hobgoblin’s powerful blows. The Hunters had chosen not to tell you in case he had been infected with the parasite because then they would have ended his life anyway. So he stayed in quarantine for observation while his bones mended. That took the best part of a year because they didn’t know the incubation period of the parasite to start showing symptoms. When he was strong enough to come home, Dino had asked them not to tell you because he wanted to surprise you.

At this, he fumbles in his pocket.

“I finally finished it.” he smiles. It was the emerald and silver he had been tinkering with the day Darkness fell. He had sculpted it into a pair or beautiful teardrop emerald earrings set in silver metal. Reaching over, he gives them to you without a word before flopping back down on the sofa, exhausted from that small effort.

He tells you that his convey bound for Lestallum with other survivors had been ambushed by Rodin daemons as they approached the Priarie Outpost. Their swords slashed through the metal of the cars like butter. A few Hunters died protecting the other civillians being transported to Lestallum, so they had no choice but to turn back to Hammerhead. There had been a few of these hit-and-miss return attempts, but being so close to Insomnia meant Hammerhead was regularly attacked by stronger than average daemons. A lot of lives - both civillian and Hunter - had been lost, but luckily Dino’s friend Prompto survived every encounter.

He assures you he never stopped trying to get back to you, but he didn’t want you knowing he was trapped in case you tried to make your own way to him.

“It took me eight years, but I finally came back.” he smiles at you again, his eyes seeming a little distant.

“Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?” you ask him, concerned about his injuries.

“Not... not really doll. But there is something ya can help me with.” Dino says as he tries to sit up. You hold an arm out to help him but he slides to the floor instead.

Propping himself up on his knees and leaning his elbows on your thighs, he looks at you seriously for a moment.

“Eight years was too long to wait. I half expected some other sucker to answer the door and claim to be your boyfriend.” You go to tell him not to be silly, but he coughs a little, silencing you.

“Anyways doll... thanks for waiting for me. I don’t think any other girl would have. You really are the most precious jewel of them all aren’t ya?” There’s that cocky smile of his you love so much.

He fumbles in his pocket again and brings out a small box. Opening it with a little difficulty because of his bandaged fingers, he reveals a golden ring.

“Whaddaya say angel, be my golden gal forever?”

His sudden marriage proposal had left you speechless, instead you just wrap your arms around his neck into a loving embrace as happy tears run down your face.


End file.
